Wakes
by Thuktun Flishithy
Summary: It is 1970, mere years after the Monster Zero War. 12 year old Miki Saegusa is one of many orphans created by the calamitous battle between King Ghidorah and Godzilla, burdened by her secret nature as a psychic. When kidnapped by a group who seeks to abuse this power, will she be forced to make peace with the demon of her past in order to save her future? Leviathan side-story.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This is yet another side-story to Leviathan, my Godzilla/NGE fusion, but like the other side-stories, this is purely a Godzilla story. Set in 1970, this is the story of a twelve year old Miki Saegusa, and of how she became bonded to the King of the Monsters. Compared to the other side stories, this is going to be far less of a war/history tale, and instead one of character.**

**As a warning, this is a bit more emotionally heavy than the other stories as well, and may contain thematic elements the readers find uncomfortable.**

**And so, without further ado...**

* * *

==/*\==

* * *

Whenever she dreamed, and unfortunately that was all the time, she dreamed of sinking.

She had never even gone swimming before, and yet the sensation of the icy cold water enveloping her was too real to be her imagination, the pressure in her chest as she tried to hold her breath too frightening to dismiss. Every time, she was surrounded by inky blackness, with only a faint pale shimmering far above her giving any semblance of a surface. The same could not be said for the bottom- as far as she knew, there was no end to the depths beneath her.

Every time she finally lost the battle to stay awake, she sank. Every time she crawled into her bunk and closed her eyes, she would open them again and see those blank faces, staring at her through the shimmering surface.

And every time she let sleep take her into the cold water, the pressure in her lungs would become too great, and she'd open her mouth to breathe-

"Miki?"

Miki's eyes darted open and she bolted upright in her seat, sending her pencil clattering to the floor. Mrs. Shimura was looking at her tiredly, but Miki knew that she was also more than a little fearful. Around her, she could sense that same fear in her classmates, mixed with a few sprinkles of revulsion, pity, or even anger. In her lingering grogginess, it was enough to make her lip tremble slightly.

Then casually, she leaned back in her seat and folded her arms across her chest. Mrs. Shimura looked ready to reprimand her, then clenched her jaw shut. She took a breath to calm herself - not very effectively, if what Miki sensed meant anything - then sighed.

"Miki, if you were listening, then you should be able-"

"If you were going to ask me the question about the Christmas War Treaty of 1957, the answer is that each signatory nation limited themselves to fifty hydrogen bombs." She raised one hand and rested her fingers against her temple. "And for my next trick, I'm going to guess that your card is the Ace of Hearts."

Mrs. Shimura hesitated for a moment, then straightened. "Yes, the answer is fifty warheads each. But I'll remind you, Student Saegusa, that getting the answer right is not the only thing school is about. I'm docking another five points off your behavior score."

"While you're at it, you should probably take ten off Yoko's score," came the lazy drawl. "She's been making out with Akihiko in the girls' bathroom while Tobao is running on the track."

A few things happened simultaneously at that, not least of which was Yoko's scream of "You _bitch_!" A few gasps, a few annoyed groans, and a very cross Shimura slapping her hand on the nearest desk.

"_Student Saegusa_," the middle-aged teacher said, her voice a hiss, "you are dismissed from class. Go straight to the principal's office, and stay there until the specialist arrives. Student Ito, half an hour extra sweeping duty for that outburst."

Miki sat there for a moment, then slowly stood up and slung her bookbag over her shoulder. Dragging her feet, she started making her way out of the classroom. She didn't even need to brush against Yoko's mind to sense the hate and disgust coming from the girl as she walked by. As she reached the door, close to Tobao's seat, she stopped to look at the lanky boy. His ice-blue eyes were wide as he looked at her, and she sighed.

"Sorry you had to find out that way. But us freaks should be looking out for each other, right?"

He shrank back into his seat. She shook her head, then finally left the classroom.

* * *

==/*\==

* * *

_Sinking, drowning..._

Her eyes snapped open, and she realized she'd dozed off again, this time in the chair outside the principal's office. Arching her back, she glanced around, taking stock of the hallway. After all, it'd probably be the last time she was here, and then it'd be off to another school, so she could terrify _its _teachers, and get kicked out of that one, and so on.

Seventh time's the charm? She let out a dry, humorless laugh at that.

As her eyes focused, they fell upon the bulletin board they let students use for their clubs and the like. There was the usual invitations for go club and Human-Space Alliance, but what drew her attention was a small illustration someone had made on scrap paper. An all-too-familiar monster, recognizable even through the distortion of amateur drawing skills.

_Hero of the World_, it said underneath.

Miki stared for a moment, then got up and walked over to the board. Gently taking the paper down, she looked at the drawing, running a thumb over the words written at the bottom.

Then she calmly ripped it in half, and threw it in the nearby recycling bin.

She was plopping back down in her seat when she felt two presences coming around the hallway. Straining her ears, she fell silent as she listened.

"-and for how long has she displayed this behavior?" a man's voice asked.

"The school board records say she's been a bit of a troublemaker since, well, after Zero Day," came Mrs Shimura's reply. "But this specific behavior? It's been in the last year or so."

"Mmm. How accurate would you say her 'guesses' are?"

"Too accurate. Just today, she managed to guess the answer to a question I hadn't even asked, right after waking up."

"Is it always after waking up?"

"I wouldn't say so. But she does have narcolepsy. Is that important?"

"It very well might be."

The two finally appeared around the corner, and Miki looked their way. The man accompanying Mrs. Shimura was tall and surprisingly well-built, with a tanned complexion. His left eye seemed oddly glossy, and she realized it was made of glass. She decided to skim along his mind, and noticed that he was a surprisingly well-guarded man. Nothing she couldn't crack, she supposed, but she didn't feel like making another scene.

"Miki," Mrs. Shimura said, "this is the specialist here to see you today."

"Pleasure to meet you, Ms. Saegusa." The specialist extended a calloused hand. "You can call me Dr. Hirata."

Miki looked at his hand, then back to his face. "You look like Dr. Serizawa."

Dr. Hirata smiled lightly. "I do get that sometimes. Are you studying him in class?"

"No." Miki shrugged. "But he killed Godzilla."

To her surprise, the response from him was a short laugh. "A personal idol, then."

She smirked slightly.

"Miki," Mrs. Shimura interrupted, "Dr. Hirata is here to talk to you about your... well..."

"I'll take it from here." Dr. Hirata knelt down, looking her at eye level. "Ms Saegusa, I work for a government department that researches extrasensory perception in those borne from marriages between people from Earth and those from Mars and Planet X. That's a fancy term for psychic powers. Knowing events before they happen, sensing the feelings of others, even when they're not in the room, and even reading minds."

Miki shifted in her seat. "You don't actually believe that, do you?"

"Something tells me you already know that answer." Dr. Hirata looked over his shoulder at Mrs. Shimura, then to her. "The school has given me permission to do some tests. Would you agree to them?"

She averted her eyes and looked away, hugging herself.

"You'll get a sweet bun if you do it," the specialist added, sing-song.

A sigh. "Fine."

* * *

==/*\==

* * *

Miki stared at the opaque plastic divider that had been laid across the table, then looked up at Dr. Hirata, who had taken the seat across from her. He simply smiled as he neatly placed down his briefcase and opened it.

"It's to make sure you can't see what I'm doing," he said. "Wouldn't be much of a test otherwise."

There was a rustling of paper as he rummaged about, then he handed her a sheet, along with a pencil. Taking it, she saw that he was producing his own. He carefully slid his briefcase to the side, and set the paper and pencil down.

"This is one of the simpler tests," he said. "I'm going to draw something, and I want to see how accurately you can copy it without seeing. I'm, er, not the best at illustrations, but I hope you won't mind."

With that, he began hastily sketching something down. Miki closed her eyes, and saw through his as he began to draw a duck. At least, it _might _have been a duck, but the man was telling the truth about his abilities. Fumbling for the pencil, she began to copy him, eyes closed still as her hand subconsciously matched with his.

A minute or so later, she let the pencil clatter from her hand, and she opened her eyes as she flaunted the paper at him. Surprise radiated from Dr. Hirata like heat from a coal as he looked at her drawing, then back down to his.

"You even copied the smudge I made with the eraser," he murmured. A moment passed as he tapped his chin with the pencil, then he set it down. "Let's move on to the next test."

Reaching into his briefcase, he pulled out three playing cards, raising them above the divider so Miki could see them. Jack of Hearts, Eight of Clubs, Deuce of Hearts. Then he placed them on the desk, and Miki could hear the whisper of paper against the desk as he slid them about. Stopping, he straightened and looked back at her.

"I want you to try and guess which one I'm pointing at," he said.

Miki sighed. "You're not actually pointing at any of them, 'cause your hand is closed. By the way, the middle's the Jack, the left one is the Deuce, and Eight's one the right."

The specialist's eyes widened, and a smile broke out across his face. "Well done, Miss Saegusa. I think I can actually skip the next few tests and go right to the last one."

He promptly brought down the divider and leaned forward, staring her intently in the eyes. Miki shrank bank, surprised by the hardness in the man's stare.

"What am I thinking of right now?"

Straightening, Miki stared back. Her brow furrowed for a moment, then she smiled.

"You're thinking of a dog with a red collar, juggling three red balls while riding a unicycle."

Dr. Hirata leaned back in his seat, running a hand through his hair. Shaking his head slightly, he let out a small laugh.

"Miss Saegusa, even through these preliminary tests I can tell that you're leagues beyond all the others we've tested. Most of them can only roughly capture the pencil strokes, or know that I'm thinking of the color red. But you..."

"There are others?" Miki asked, suddenly feeling like she'd been hit in the gut.

Dr. Hirata nodded. "You are not alone, Miss Saegusa. And I hope that you'll get to meet them soon. If your teachers agree, we might transfer you to our research institute, so you can cultivate these talents with others of your kind."

Collecting his things, he paused to hand a small plastic package over. Taking it, Miki saw it was a red bean sweet bun, and she promptly unwrapped it. By the time Dr. Hirata had all of his things in order, she had already devoured the treat and tossed the wrapper in the trash. Leaning back contentedly, she watched as the specialist stood up and made for the door.

Dr. Hirata looked back, a wry smile on his face. "I hope we'll meet again soon enough."

He walked out the door, and Miki sighed. Lazily rising out of her seat, she grabbed her book bag and slung it over her shoulder. It was going to be an hour's walk back home, and she preferred to do it before it got dark.

* * *

==/*\==

* * *

It had only been three years, and yet sometimes it was easy to pretend that the most destructive conflict in history had never happened. Even here, on the outskirts of the final stage of that maddening day of death, life had achieved its normal boredom. A few patches of tarmac that looked suspiciously like giant footprints, a few solemn epitaphs on doors, a handful of condemned buildings... the wounds of Zero Day had already sealed over.

Of course, wounds that sealed too quickly had a tendency to fester, and Miki felt like such an abscess.

She looked at the smiling faces of those out enjoying the warm weather as she walked down the street, and clenched her fists. Fucking two-faces, all of them. She could taste it coming off of them without even trying, just picking up the faintest outside thoughts and feelings as she passed them by. She knew that the businessman who always sat on the bench near the izakaya was secretly sleeping with his secretary, and that the owner of the nearby drugstore had once gotten away with beating a Xilien refugee. Secrets, infidelities, crimes, all available for her to see past their masks.

Why did such horrible people get to be happy after Zero Day?

Breathing in through her nose, she pulled her headphones out of her bookbag and snapped them over her ears. The snug fit of the fake leather against her ears was soothing, and she closed her eyes for a few moments as acid rock drowned out the sounds of the outside world.

That lull was quickly broken, as a hand shoved against her shoulder. Opening her eyes, she saw Yoko glaring at her, flanked on each side by her friends. She couldn't be bothered to remember their names, but a quick brush against their minds provided them.

Tiredly taking off her headphones, she offered a bored expression at Yoko. "You trying to sell me something?"

"Tobao just broke up with me," the older girl said, a slight twitch in her left eye. "All because you used your freaky Skinny powers on me and _humiliated _me in front of the entire class."

"Should've done it sooner, if you're just gonna throw that word around. Or is Tobao somehow less of a Mysterian than me? Last I checked, I'm only half."

"At least he acts normal," came the low reply, followed by another shove. "You just sleep all day and sulk with those headphones of yours, being a _freak_."

"Freak," Mina repeated. "You even smell like you're from outer space."

"I bet even Godzilla smells better than you," Himiko added.

Miki straightened, clenching her fists. Yoko noticed, and smirked.

"Oh, did that get to you, freak? Every time you _do _open your mouth, it's to complain about him. Godzilla this, Godzilla that, Godzilla is the _worst thing ever_. Maybe you wanted the aliens to take over, huh?"

"You don't know what you're talking about," Miki said, throat tight.

"Oh, I think I do." Yoko took a step forward, puffing her lips in a pout. "Are you just upset because your mommy and daddy got smooshed like the freaks-"

The older girl stopped suddenly, blinking rapidly as she drew in a shuddering breath. Stepping back, she placed a hand to her chest, hot tears running down her cheeks. She opened her mouth, probably to try and speak, but a half-choked sob came out.

"Yoko?" Mina asked, rapidly stepping away. "Yoko, what's wrong?"

"What did you _do_?" Himiko demanded.

Miki didn't reply, instead focusing on projecting the painful memories onto Yoko's psyche. She took a step forward, and the older girl retreated, falling back on her butt as she tried to fight the tears. Kneeling down, Miki looked her in the eyes, her face a blank map.

"Don't you ever mention my parents again," she said, a snarl breaking free. "And don't mention that thing again. I hate it. Do you hear me? I hate it. I hope it dies, and I hope you die, too."

"Miki," Mina pleaded, still stepping away. "Stop it! You're hurting her!"

"Help!" Himiko screamed. "She's hurting my friend!"

That was enough to snap her out of it. Like the tide, the painful memories receded back into her core. Miki blinked, a sudden chill washing over her as she looked Yoko. The girl was holding her legs to her chest, sobbing hysterically.

The chill got worse, and Miki felt it get harder to breathe. She looked about wildly, and saw that the passerby had begun to stare at her, one even reaching into his pocket for a bulky portable phone. Their feelings washed over her, and she found herself unable to hold back the flood of confusion, revulsion, and fear that billowed from them like hot ash.

She ran.

No one moved to stop her as she bolted down the sidewalk, her shoes clacking against the pavement. Turning down an alleyway, she dashed across the train tracks and into the tall grass that extended towards the mountains. She tripped, the earth leaving small cuts in her cheek as she fell, then she scrambled back up and continued running.

She ran, and ran, letting her memories guide her. Even as her lungs burned, she ran past the abandoned homes near the Road, and losing a shoe didn't stop her from jogging past the abandoned police barriers and occasional ruined tank. The sun began to set over the mountains, casting it all in a warm orange light as she limped across faded footprints and still-blackened patches of earth.

By the time she arrived, she was practically crawling, gasping like a fish as she trudged to the Road. Even through the pain and fatigue, she still found the strength to shake her head at the name. The Road of the Gods? The Road to Hell was a better name.

Sure enough, it was there. A furrow wide enough to fit an ocean liner, filled halfway with water from the rains, edges made of now-cooled molten rock that shone like glass. Looking one way, she saw it disappear over the horizon, and when she looked the other way she could follow the Road all the way up to what had once been called Mount Fuji.

Creeping towards the edge, she sat down, hugging her legs to her chest as she stared into the tranquil smooth water below. There was something mesmerizing about the glittering sides of the Road, made from what a teacher had called Alamogordo glass. Atomic glass. Melted and cooled in instants, as a horrible golden monster from beyond the stars was pushed along the ground by a burning force like that of the hydrogen bomb.

People said that you could see shadows of the old ground in the glass, what had been there before the Road's birth. The rocks, the trees, the homes.

She had been here more times than she could count. And yet, she could never see her parents in the glass.

A sob wracked her, and she sniffed, rubbing at her nose. She recalled the reactions of the passerby, recalled Yoko's own sobbing, and she closed her eyes.

"I'm a monster, just like you," she whispered. "Is that what you wanted? Is that why you took them from me?"

Another sob escaped her, and she rocked gently, trying to force everything out of her mind. The wind rustled her hair, and she focused on it, as if hoping for it to carry her pain away.

She didn't know how long she was there before she heard a twig snap behind her. Whipping her head around, she blinked a few times, as if to dispel the image before her.

"Dr. Hirata?"

The specialist was standing a handful of paces away, clutching something small in his hand. This time, however, there was no warmth exuding from him. Where there'd been a glass eye, he now had a black patch, and he frowned as he took another step closer.

She stood up, and that was when he raised the object in his hand and squeezed the trigger.

Pain lanced up her shoulder as the dart sank in, only to be replaced by numbness. Miki opened her mouth to scream, but there was only a slur as she stumbled forward. Clutching at the grass, she tried to get back up, only to feel the strength leave her. Falling forward, she merely stared into the grass, vision unfocused.

The last thing she heard before slipping into unconsciousness, was Hirata's footsteps as he approached.

* * *

==/*\==

* * *

_**You have been reading:**_

_**Wakes, Chapter One**_


	2. Chapter 2

_Sinking, falling... a last breath..._

Her eyes opened to an unfamiliar ceiling, and she felt a scream try to crawl past her dry lips. Instinctively she tried to bolt upright, only to wheeze as something tight about her neck caused her to jerk back. Sputtering, she forced herself to suck in deep breaths, even as tears welled in the corners of her eyes.

Wetting her lips, she darted her eyes all around, taking stock of her surroundings. A furtive glance down revealed that she was in a gurney of some sort, bound with an excessive number of rubber restraints. Looking back up, she saw that she was in what seemed to be a hospital room of sorts, complete with an IV drip and a tray of surgical instruments. No windows, no clocks, nothing to give her any sense of grounding.

"You're finally awake," came a low voice, to her side.

Straining her neck, Miki looked over and saw Dr. Hirata sitting in a metal folding chair, one leg casually folded over his knee. Instead of a suit, the man was now garbed in something reminiscent of a military uniform, complete with insignia and stripes. His hands were folded calmly across his lap, but she could still see the holstered pistol on his hip.

She tried to reach out and feel for his mind, and it was then that she realized she couldn't. For the first time in years, she couldn't sense what was coming off of other people. A chill ran down her spine, and she squirmed against the restraints.

"You're probably wondering by now why you can't read my mind," Hirata said. "That would be the sedatives I've given you. Don't worry, however. Your psychic gift will return when they've worn off, thankfully."

"Where am I?" Miki croaked.

"That, you'll be allowed to know if you prove agreeable." Hirata stood up, straightening his uniform. "Now then, I believe some new introductions are in order. As you might have already deduced, Hirata was a pseudonym. You may call me Captain Ryuui. I am the leader of the Red Bamboo, of which you are now a member."

Miki swallowed dryly. "Please... please, just let me go. I won't say anything, I don't _know _anything. Just let me go home. I'll... I'll say I ran away, I'll-"

"I'm sure you must _dearly _miss your foster parents, considering you go through them like a crab goes through coconuts." Ryuui smiled thinly. "And besides, if you do what is asked of you, you will return home a hero of the nation."

"Hero of the nation?" Miki mumbled. "What are you talking about?"

Ryuui's smile stretched further, revealing crooked teeth. "I believe a, shall we say, a _tour_ will be helpful in answering that question."

He tapped his foot once, and the door opened to reveal a quartet of guards, one of whom was carting a wheelchair. Deftly, they undid her bindings and hoisted her off the gurney. She tried to struggle, but they didn't even seem to notice as they plopped her in the wheelchair and secured her again. One of them began to push her along, and she saw Ryuui guide the way.

They wheeled her out into the hallway, and she saw she was in an expansive medical wing of some sort. It was hard to tell as they pushed her along down the hall, but she was sure that most of the rooms were occupied.

"This is our infirmary and medical laboratory," Ryuui said, speaking almost as though he were giving a tour of a museum. "It was here that the seed of our greatest project germinated, thanks to contributions from a few members of the Ishii Company."

A muffled scream echoed out from one of the rooms at the end of the hall. Miki shrank back from the sound and looked to Ryuui. For his part, the man didn't seem to notice.

"Of course, we had our predecessors to the great project. No matter the differences in technique, however, the core was always the same."

He continued to guide her down the hallway. They soon left the medical wing behind, and Miki found herself being wheeled into some massive enclosure, perhaps a hangar or dock. A metal gangwalk crossed its center, and as the guards pushed her along, she saw that it was like the submarine pens she'd seen in textbooks. The sea filled the bottom in through a trio of large archways, through which sunlight shone.

The guard pushing her stopped, and Miki jolted as they turned her about, allowing her to look at the water below. To her side, Ryuui continued.

"At the dawn of man, nature was the mightiest weapon of all. Teeth, nails, fists. Then some hairy creature barely in the semblance of a man picked up a rock, and soon the mightiest weapon were clubs and spears and arrows. The secret of metallurgy gave rise to the domination of the sword, and after that gunpowder gave us the cannon. It seemed as though man had finally reached his pinnacle of savagery with the atomic bomb built by the American devils, only for that to be exceeded by the hydrogen bomb."

He gestured to the water. "But now... it has come full circle, and once again nature is the mightiest weapon of all."

Miki followed his hand, and felt a tremble overcome her. Resting in the water was a great _thing_, a beast eerily similar to a lobster or crawfish, if they could grow to be sixty meters long. Something near it moved, and Miki realized there were _more_, at least three or four of them slumbering in the pen beneath her.

"We call them Ebirah," came Ryuui's proud answer to an unasked question. "And they are but a taste of our growing power. At first we could barely tame these kaiju, using a specially grown fruit, but with the advent of the Monster Zero War, we suddenly had far more sophisticated methods of control. And with that, our numbers have grown."

Miki closed her eyes, then forced herself to slow her breathing. "Why do you need me? You already have your monsters."

"These kaiju under our control are indeed mighty, but we lack the most crucial one of all." She heard cloth rustling, and opened her eyes to see Ryuui had stooped to one knee. "Why did the Xiliens lose the war? After all, they too had an army of kaiju at their disposal."

"Because they got duped by a three headed space monster?" Miki offered, herself surprised by the sarcasm in her voice.

The guard gripped her shoulder like a vise, prompting a wince, only for Ryuui to raise a hand. The guard let go, and the Captain leaned in slightly.

"They lost the war even before Ghidorah's coming. No, it was another beast that had foiled their invasion. You know its name, Miki."

Miki looked him in the eye.

"Yes," she said flatly. "I do."

"The mightiest army this world had ever seen, undone by that one monster. Warships set aflame off the Horn of Africa, kaiju that had defeated an entire armored division struck down in the middle of New York... its title is a well-earned one. Not even the Xiliens could bend it to their will, with all of their technological wonders."

Ryuui reached out with a hand, and Miki recoiled as he cupped her cheek.

"But they didn't have you, Miki. You are the most powerful psychic we have ever found after half a decade of searching, to such a degree that the others might as well not even have the gift. You are the key to bending the King of the Monsters to our will. And when we have it under our heel, we shall be an army greater than the Xiliens had ever dreamed of."

"To do what?" Miki asked. "Hold the world ransom for a hundred trillion yen?"

"No," Ryuui said, suddenly sounding wistful. "No... to restore the Empire to its glory. The Americans and Soviets are weakened, still licking their wounds. They would be hard-pressed to stop our army as it is, and with Godzilla it would be impossible. We will retake what they had denied us twenty five years ago, and the world will fear us once again. Tame Godzilla for us, and you shall be the hero of the Empire as we make the Pacific ours once more."

Miki wet her lips, and gripped the arms of the wheelchair tightly.

"N...no." She averted her eyes. "I d-don't want to hurt... I won't say anything if you let me go... just please..."

Ryuui let out a soft sigh and stood up. He nodded to the guard, and began walking once more.

"I have something to show you before you make up your mind," he said, a smug knowing tone to his voice. "I have a feeling it will change your mind."

The guard continued wheeling her down the gangwalk, until she suddenly found herself outside. Sunlight assailed her eyes, and she held them tightly shut. The sounds of the ocean caressed her ears, and when she opened her eyes, she saw she was on an island. It was a fairly large one, with even a small mountain in the distance. Craggy volcanic rock dominated the landscape, with roughly-hewn pathways crisscrossing it.

They continued pushing her along, the wheelchair rattling and jolting on the uneven ground. It was noontime, and in minutes Miki found herself drenched in sweat. Straining her vision, she saw rows of tents and small prefabs set up along a ridge near the coast, waving the Imperial Navy's flag. A large crowd of people was milling near the tents, and she realized they were hacking away at the stone with pickaxes.

"Those are the slaves," Ryuui said casually, looking back over his shoulder. "Chinese dogs, for the most part. We use them to build our fortifications, as well as subjects for testing. They also make good entertainment when you throw one to the Ookondoru."

She didn't even want to know what that meant. Glancing over, she saw a trio of guards beating down a straggler, and she hurriedly looked away.

"Is that what you wanted me to see?"

"No," came the cheery reply.

They came closer to the mountain, and though the noon sun still weighed on her skin like a hot anvil, Miki felt her hairs standing on end. Now that they were closer, she could see that there was a passageway carved into the jet black stone of the mountainside. No light seemed to penetrate the shadows of the tunnel, and as she stared into the blackness she felt herself begin to shiver.

By the time they were a hundred paces from the entrance, the shivers had given way to full-out trembling, shaking the wheelchair to the point that the guard had to clamp down. Sweat poured down her face, and she realized her breathing had turned rapid and shallow. Her chest felt as though someone had slipped a phantom hand through her ribs and squeezed her heart.

Ryuui looked over, a bemused expression on his face. "My, you're reacting so early? The others had to actually get into the mountain to show such signs."

"What," Miki gasped, tears flowing down her cheeks, "is in there?"

The captain smirked, ever so slightly. "Something we feed psychic girls to when they're being naughty."

"Okay!" Miki wheezed out, sucking in a shuddering breath. "I'll do it! I'll use my powers on Godzilla! Just... don't make me go there..."

"Excellent," Ryuui said, clapping his hands together. "Your first session starts tomorrow morning. In the meantime, be sure to get some rest."

He snapped his fingers, and the guards turned around and began to wheel Miki away from the mountain. With each step, the terrifying presence faded, and Miki found she could breathe again.

The relief was indescribable, and yet all she could do was bow her head and weep.

* * *

==/*\==

* * *

They returned her to the infirmary room she'd awoken in, and finally unshackled her. Rubbing her wrists, she rose from the wheelchair and backed away, watching as Ryuui ordered his men about. An orderly brought in a tray with rice porridge and a lone egg, while one of the guards laid out a simple white robe on her bed. The last man to enter was a doctor of some sort, who placed a pill on her food tray.

"Eggs are hard to come by on this base," Ryuui said. "Consider this special treatment for your cooperation, a treatment that can easily be revoked. There are two guards stationed outside your door at all times, and you are under constant surveillance. You will be escorted to your first contact session at 800 hours sharp, and you will be wearing the hospital gown. I recommend you take that pill, lest you want to be vomiting for the next week."

Miki simply nodded, throat too hoarse to talk. Ryuui studied her for a moment with his remaining eye, then let that toothy grin break at the corner of his mouth.

"Tomorrow, the first step on the path to the Empire's restoration begins, Miss Saegusa. You should feel honored."

At that, he turned about and left the room, the rest of his men following suit. The door swung shut, and Miki felt her knees wobble as she realized she was finally alone. Wrapping her arms about herself, she glanced about wildly, trying to see just where they could be hiding the cameras, but only aged white drywall greeted her.

She looked at the bowl of rice porridge and frowned. For all she knew, there could be more sedatives waiting in there for her, or perhaps more of the drugs Ryuui had used to disable her powers. She sat down on the bed across from it and stared, as if waiting for it to bubble like the poisons in the old cartoons she used to watch. Grabbing the pill Ryuui had given her, she dropped it into the bowl, half-expecting to see the thing explode.

Then her stomach rumbled, and Miki felt a day's worth of hunger weigh down on her. Tentatively, she reached out and grabbed the bowl of porridge, peering at the white sludge within. The smell of warm food caressed her nostrils, and suddenly she began to ravenously dig in, forgoing the spoon as she scooped the egg out and ate it with her hand, then tipped the bowl back and drank the porridge.

Hunger sated, she set the bowl down and looked at the hospital gown. She didn't want to change into it, especially not with cameras on her, but she remembered the thing in the mountain. A shiver overtook her, and she grabbed the gown, shimmying under the sheets so she could try and keep her privacy.

Once she was changed she curled up into a ball, sheets bunched over her as she closed her eyes and tried her hardest to get some sleep. As if on cue, which it almost certainly was, the light in her room switched off and left her in darkness. The only thing she could hear was her own breathing, and she focused on it, hoping it could lull her to sleep.

Instead, she simply began to sob again, shaking gently as she rubbed her puffy eyes.

"I miss you," she whispered. "I miss you. Please... please..."

As it had been a thousand times before, and just as it would be a thousand times after, there was no reply.

* * *

==/*\==

* * *

_She found herself sitting on a beach, a crackling fire before her and a cloudless night sky above her. The tide lapped endlessly at the jagged black sands of the shore, sea foam spraying with each crashing wave. __A woman sat across the fire from her, trying to keep warm as the wind threatened to snuff out the flickering flame. Others surrounded her, their faces obscured by the fugue of the woman's own perception, but Miki could still recognize the scene- behind her, she could see the ridge the base was built into._

_The woman was one of the many slaves the Red Bamboo were using on the island, if the simple rags about her small frame meant anything. It was hard to pinpoint where she was from, exactly- her face looked Japanese, but her coal-black complexion and startling blue eyes were not like anything she'd seen before._

_Miki sighed. It seemed she had finally gone to sleep, and was now set to be drifting through people's dreams for the next few hours. It was always exhausting, being reduced to nothing more than a silent watcher. At least it was better than drow-_

_"Who are you?" a voice asked._

_Miki froze, and realized that the woman was looking at her intently, a growing look of shock on her face. She wet her lips, pausing briefly to wonder why she needed to do that, then spoke._

_"W-wait... you can see me?"_

_"Where I am from, we are taught how to see your shadow," the woman replied, wistfully. "But only the Priestesses had this power before. Are you a new emissary of the goddess?"_

_"No, I'm not-" Miki's eyes widened. "Goddess? You're from Infant Island, aren't you?"_

_"Yes." The woman tiredly stoked the flames, looking away. "My name is Daiyo. I was taken along with many of my people only a moon past, and we have been their slaves since."_

_"Daiyo," Miki repeated. "Daiyo, you need to help me, **please**. They're planning on making me do something horrible, and it might put everyone in the world in danger."_

_"I can't help you," Daiyo said, calmly, not even glancing Miki's way. "We cannot even help ourselves. They beat us when they desire it, they kill us when they desire it, and they take us when they desire it. Some of us build rafts in secret, dreaming of escape, but I fear that will fail."_

_"Don't... you guys on Infant Island follow Mothra, right?" Miki hated how silly she sounded. "She protects you guys, right? Can't... can't she fly over and rescue you or-"_

_"The goddess sleeps," Daiyo interrupted, casting a remorseful glance at Miki. "They all now sleep after fighting the One Who is Many. I pray for the goddess's swift judgment, and that is the only hope I hold to my heart. But it may be many more moons before She awakens and returns us to the shade under Her wings."_

_"There... there has to be something we can do," Miki said, kneeling down by the fire. "I have this power, and I don't know how to really use it, but maybe I can still help. Like, like I can help you guys hide the rafts, and then I can escape with you guys, or..."_

_Daiyo only looked at her, clearly mulling it over. Her thoughts bubbled under her skin like cream poured into tea. Miki's shoulders sagged as she felt the woman's indecision, her hesitation._

_"Please," she whispered, feeling fresh tears well. "Please, I don't want them to make me do those horrible things. I-I don't want to **die** here. I don't want to die."_

_The fire faded, and the stars fell from the sky as Daiyo vanished into blackness. Icy cold wrapped about Miki, and she fell into the dark, lungs burning as the pressure of the freezing waters grew. Her eyes looked upwards, and once again she could see their mournful faces looking at her through the surface._

_Then they faded as well, and another face took their place. Furious eyes regarded her, like the dying embers of a fire in the darkness, and Miki finally screamed in recognition._

_"I don't want to die!"_

She bolted upright, placing a hand over her chest as she gasped for air. She looked about frantically, half-expecting to see his burning orange eyes staring into hers, then forced herself to breathe in. She rubbed her chest to try and alleviate the tightness seemingly gripping her lungs, taking note of how her heart hammered against her ribs.

The lights in the room snapped on, and Miki watched as the door opened, revealing Ryuui and the guards. The captain arched his eyebrow as he studied her panicked face, then smiled. An odd feeling emanated off of him, one that Miki wasn't sure she even wanted to understand.

"Awake just in time," he said. "Excellent. Time for your first contact experiment with the most powerful thing on Earth, Miss Saegusa."

* * *

==/*\==

* * *

Miki stared at the ceiling of the room they had brought her to, counting each fleck of dirt on the drywall one by one. It was the most she could do to distract herself from the doctors milling about her bound form on the operating chair. It could have only been five minutes or so, and yet it felt like an eternity as they wheeled in their equipment and fiddled with their tools.

One of them leaned over and applied electrodes to her temples. She tried to shy away from the ice-cold gel, but they had even bound her head to the head of the chair, so tightly that she could barely feel anything in her scalp. She brushed her mind against the doctor, hoping to learn at least an iota about what was happening, but he quickly moved away.

"I'm sorry it couldn't be a bit more comfortable," Ryuui said, just out of her field of vision. "The straps are for your safety."

"But why would I need them?" she asked.

Ryuui ignored her. "Dr. Yamashita, is the blood sample ready?"

"We already have the dose ready for injection, Captain."

"I'll take it, Doctor." Ryuui suddenly loomed over her, a smug smile as he shook a large needle in her face.

"Blood sample?" Miki murmured, weakly.

"Psychics such as yourselves have shown to be best at finding a mind when you have something they owned. Clothes, toys, blood..."

Her eyes widened. "Are... no. That's... that's _Godzilla's _blood?"

"Heavily diluted, of course. His blood is highly reactive, and even a single milliliter would cause a fatal shock to your system." He leaned in, hot breath on her cheek. "This will hurt. You'll be lucky to have a few minutes of lucidity to find him, so I advise you use those few minutes."

He moved away, and Miki sucked in a gasp as she felt a swab of iodine on her bare thigh. She pressed against her restraints, but she couldn't even wriggle as a gloved hand held her leg down.

"Wait," she pleaded, and then yelped as the needle stabbed in.

At first, she couldn't feel anything, save for the slight bite of the needle as it was withdrawn. The doctor applied a cotton ball to the site, and Miki relaxed slightly, hoping that maybe it was just a mind game Ryuui was playing on her.

Then her skin felt as though it was on fire.

The chair rattled slightly as she jerked against the bonds, the pain of the leather cuffs scraping her wrists barely an afterthought as she let out a choked cry. Her stomach twisted one way, and her heart felt as though it was lurching in the other direction. The world blurred before her as she felt her bones creak under the tension of her muscles. She closed her eyes-

-and then opened them to see darkness.

No, not quite darkness. There was light, however faint, illuminating the sandy landscape all around her. Miki absentmindedly rubbed her wrists, letting out a long breath. At least in here, she couldn't feel the pain of the injection.

Of course, she didn't know what _here _was. Simply glancing around revealed silvery sand for as far as the eye could see, with the faint outline of a cliff face in the distance. Kneeling down, she dragged her fingers through it, noting how cold it felt. It was damp, as though the tide had just receded from the beach. Holding up a clump, she peered closely and marveled at how fine it seemed.

A few tiny motes moved at the corner of her eye, and she absentmindedly waved them away, only for them to return. Straining her vision, she tried to look at them, to see what they could be. It was then that she became very still, as she realized that it wasn't motes that were floating about.

They were fish.

Miki began to rapidly breathe in and out as she looked around once more, her vision becoming clearer. She was underwater, standing on the seabed of some vast grotto. The light itself had to be an illusion, for when she turned her gaze upwards she found no sun shining down on her, only a seeming-infinite expanse of dark water.

"No," she whimpered. "_No_."

She became aware of something else at that moment. Muscles that weren't hers, flexing; a heart that wasn't hers, beating. Simultaneously, she could feel what it felt, and sense its presence with her own senses as it lurched behind her. Not just physical sensation, but emotion. Different from what she was used to sensing, but recognizable. Confusion, a modicum of curiosity, and an undercurrent of genuine shock.

Miki turned about, and found herself staring Godzilla in the face.

As soon as his eyes bored into her own, uncontrollable shaking overcame her. It was _him_. He was in front of her, so close that she could have touched him if she wanted. Memories of hot glass and lost smiles burst into her mind, as a meeting she could never have imagined or wanted was made reality.

Godzilla cocked his head to the side as he finished rising from the seabed, silt rolling off his scaly skin. He sniffed once, and Miki felt in her bones the faintest start of a growl. Like the shimmering of water before it began to boil, she could feel a deep anger in him begin to take hold.

"No," Miki whispered. "No. _No_."

Godzilla took a step forward, sending massive clouds of sand billowing as his foot came down, and Miki backed away as though she had been electrocuted. She began to hyperventilate, tears rising into the water about her as she stared at the murderer of her parents.

She fell, the world slipping away as darkness consumed her, and felt a scream claw its way past her lips-

-and woke once more.

The doctors and technicians were moving in a frenzy about her, yelling rapid-fire as they ran between the instruments. They didn't even seem to be registering her screams, until she heard one of them suddenly fall to the ground and begin to scream as well.

"Miki!" Ryuui appeared in her blurry vision. "Miki, what did you see? Where was he?"

She simply continued to scream. Ryuui made a gesture, and suddenly a needle stabbed into her arm. Instantly the world became a little more clear, even if her bones still burned.

"What did you see?" he repeated.

"D-dark," she managed to choke out. "Cold. Uh, he was at the bottom of the ocean. Cli...cliffs around us, so tall... no plants, just fish..."

"A deep sea trench," Ryuui murmured. "Likely the Mariana, considering where he was last seen... too deep for almost any sub to dare try and visit."

He looked back to her and cupped her cheek. "Already you have succeeded where all others have failed, Miki. Even the ones who survived were unable to provide his surroundings."

For her part, Miki simply drooped her eyelids, too tired to even speak. The burning in her bones endured, and only seemed to grow stronger.

"You have earned yourself more food privileges, Miss Saegusa. As well as an hour's outdoor activity, under guard." His toothy smile widened. "Already I can see our ultimate victory against the inferior peoples of the world."

He straightened, smile fading. "We will have another contact experiment in three days. In the mean time, be sure to get some rest, so you may begin the next phase of the operation- subduing the beast's mind."

Even through the haze of pain and drugs, Miki had the urge to snap at him, to tell him where he could shove his operation. But the memories of the mountain still lingered, and she managed to hold her tongue. Even seeing Godzilla hadn't sent her into the same panic as simply drawing near to that cavern.

Yet, as she felt the first pang of nausea hit, she wondered if she would soon find the cave to be the preferable option.

* * *

==/*\==

* * *

_**You have been reading:**_

_**Wakes, Chapter Two**_


	3. Chapter 3

As Miki lay on her bed, all she could think was that she'd never had a headache like this before. It was less a sharp and localized pain, and more like as though Godzilla himself was stepping on her head. Just the very sensation of her own pulse felt like her skull was about to split open, like her blood was made of ground glass. She didn't even dare to shift her position on the cot, fearing that she would promptly vomit if she so much as twitched.

Not that it stopped her stomach from feeling like it had been twisted into a balloon animal. Every time she breathed in, she could feel the nausea roll up to the back of her throat. It had reached its peak shortly after being escorted back to her room, rising just as the aching in her bones had begun to ebb.

Her mind wandered to happier times, before that monster took everything from her. She remembered how her father would sometimes have to lie down on the couch for the day, an ice pack on his head. Every time she tried to go over to play with him, Mother would pull her back, speaking quietly but sharply about how he had to stay on the couch. Migraines, she told her. Something about not being used to Earth's gravity and blood pressure.

She remembered when she used to think being half-Mysterian was the greatest thing ever. Like a badge of pride to wear on her backpack as she skipped into elementary school and told her classmates how her daddy was from Mars.

The thought wracked a humorless laugh out of her, and she immediately regretted it as the pain redoubled. There was no pride in it. Only hateful stares from classmates, fear from the teachers, and now heartless experimentation at the hands of megalomaniacs.

Oh, and now she had incurred the direct anger of Godzilla himself.

She closed her eyes, carefully managing her breathing. At least she didn't mind that last one, not in the slightest. How strange was it, that she had never actually seen the thing who killed her parents? He'd disappeared into the sea right after killing King Ghidorah, and hadn't been seen since. Some even said he had died from his wounds. She had half-hoped that was the case.

But now, she relished that he was still alive. He didn't even know she existed when he took everything from her, and now he was going to choke on that. She focused on that confusion she had felt from him as they made contact, using the memory to distract her from the pain. This monstrosity that had destroyed the mightiest war machines on Earth, that had slain the greatest terror the world had ever known, was caught off-guard by her. Her. Twelve-year old Miki Saegusa had shaken the King of the Monsters.

She held on to that feeling, and let it carry her to sleep.

* * *

==/*\==

* * *

_It took her a few moments to realize she was back on the beach. It was noontime, now, and there were no clouds in the pale blue sky to stop the oppressive heat of the sun. All around her, obscured by the fog of perception, she could see hundreds of people at work with simple tools, chipping away rock from the tunnels they were making in the cliffside. Surrounding the crowd, soldiers walked, rifles slung by their hips._

_Daiyo was among the slaves, hauling a woven basket full of rock shards. Miki ran to her side, tiptoeing, then stopped when she realized that no one else would actually be able to see her._

_"Daiyo," she called._

_The woman jolted, then quickened her pace, suddenly keeping her vision straight ahead._

_"You're dreaming again? So early?" It was scarcely a whisper, only detectable by Miki._

_"They injected some of Godzilla's blood into me, and that took everything out of me."_

_Daiyo still didn't look at Miki, but the girl could sense the cold dread welling in the woman._

_"Why would they give you the King's blood? The Goddess has told us of the dangers men have made when practicing their sorcery on His flesh. Do they wish to make you into another Ba-a-gan?"_

_"Bagan? What is... no, that's not it, whatever it is. They want me to control him."_

_Daiyo shook her head, stopping at a pile of rocks and dumping out the basket. "You cannot control him, any more than we can control the storm. Many have tried. Sorcerers, monsters, even the newest of the star tribes. They all died trying, and so will you if you continue."_

_"It's not like I have a choice!" Miki snapped. _

_Daiyo looked over as she began to walk back to the tunnels, and Miki felt a pang of shame for her outburst._

_"I'm sorry. It's... they have this, this **thing-**"_

_"In the mountain," Daiyo finished._

_Miki blinked in surprise. "You know?"_

_"We call it Gaba-u-la-a. The Hungering Nightmare. A demon, borne like all demons from the spilt blood of the Abomination. He feeds on mind like a pig grazes grass. He was imprisoned here by the Goddess, set to starve, but these men from your island..." Daiyo shook her head. "They have been feeding him once again."_

_"With the other psychics, you mean."_

_"With the ones who fail. They simply kill us or let the beasts on their leashes sate their bloodlust when we fail, but the ones with your gift suffer a worse fate. It is said that the ones consumed by the Hungering Nightmare remain a part of him, tormented forever."_

_Miki silently mulled it over, watching as Daiyo began to collect more rock shards with calloused and cut hands._

_"So that's it?" she finally muttered. "Let Godzilla kill me, or let them feed me to some ogre? No. No, no, there **has** to be another way. You said that some of you were making rafts, right?"_

_Daiyo shook her head. "I feel for your fate, child. But I told you, the rafts are a false hope. If their gunboats do not kill us, the beasts under their command will. But they won't need to worry about that, as the rafts cannot be finished without discovery."_

_There was sudden shouting nearby, and Miki watched Daiyo crouch down, covering herself with the basket. Even though she couldn't be seen, Miki found herself crouching beside the woman._

_"What's wrong?"_

_"I am swiftly proven right," Daiyo said, pointing towards one of the tunnels. "Look, see how the slaves have been leaving piles? They hide whatever supplies they can find or steal under them, but it seems they have been caught."_

_Miki rose, and saw a trio of soldiers running down the hill, shouting at a handful of slaves. Before she knew it, she began to run as well, dashing towards where the slaves had now begun to kneel. As she approached, she could clearly see a length of rope half-hidden under the rubble near the cliff face. The slaves themselves were surrounding it, discreetly trying to cover as much as possible with their feet._

_Two of the soldiers stopped, keeping their guns trained on the crowd as their leader marched down the hill. Thankfully, it seemed he hadn't seen the rope yet._

_"What were you three doing?" he demanded, a hand on his scabbard._

_"我不会说日语," one of them said._

_"My friends and I work," another said in halting Japanese. "Like told."_

_"You Chinese dogs don't lie well. You must be hiding something."_

_"操你祖宗十八代," the first one said._

_The lead soldier considered it for a moment, then unslung his gun and smashed the butt into the man's face, teeth snapping like chalk with the impact. Miki gasped, watching the slave fall like a puppet whose strings had been cut. The man didn't even exude anger as he kicked the slave's face once, then stepped over him. _

_His eyes fell dangerously close to where the rope was hidden, and Miki acted on instinct. She sprung forward and clamped her hands over the man's eyes, fingers squeezed together. It made no sense, since she was not even really there, and yet she still covered his eyes as he finally looked over where the rope was hidden. His gaze fell directly on it, and Miki felt the fear of the slaves surrounding her reach a crescendo._

_Then to her surprise, he simply turned around. He sheathed his sword, and began to climb back up the hill._

_"It seems you were just seeing things," he said to his compatriots._

_Miki breathed a sigh of relief, simultaneous with that of the slaves as the soldier continued his climb. That relief died quickly when he suddenly unsheathed his saber again and fell upon one of the slave women who had been carrying rocks. Miki screamed, and turned away just in time to avoid seeing him swing the sword. There was the sound of a body falling behind her, and she shivered as she realized that the only emotion coming from the man was a vague boredom, lightened slightly with amusement._

_The man finally finished his climb, and rejoined his compatriots. Miki didn't turn around, even as she felt the horrible emotions spread across the slaves like a ripple as they moved to collect the body. Hugging herself, she closed her eyes and dropped her head, trying to drown it out._

_"You did something," Daiyo said._

_Miki looked up to see the slave woman standing before her. Her face betrayed no emotion, but Miki could sense the dawning realization, a lightening of her heavy spirit._

_"I covered his eyes. I think... I think I made it so he couldn't recognize what he was seeing."_

_"It has to be your gift at play. Those men should be dead already, but instead the soldiers saw nothing."_

_"Someone still died," Miki said, barely a whisper. "Why did he do it? She wasn't involved, and he didn't even see anything... he wasn't even **mad**."_

_"He doesn't need to feel anger towards us to kill us," Daiyo said, a weary tone to her voice. "His cruelty is not borne of some point, t__he cruelty **is** the point. __These men are driven by a hunger that cannot ever be sated."_

_"And we're next on the menu, aren't we?" Miki shook her head slowly. "It's... it's **hopeless**."_

_"Perhaps not," Daiyo said. "Something I saw made me realize that escape was not the false hope I thought it to be."_

_Miki's eyes widened. "You changed your mind."_

_"No, you changed that man's mind. You made him not see what we have been doing." Daiyo managed the weakest of smiles. "Miki, perhaps you are the key to that impossible escape."_

_Miki slowly looked around the beach, her eyes falling on the tired men and women around her. She saw the ribs visible under stretched skin, the callouses of their hands and feet, the hollow looks in their eyes._

_"We need a plan," she said, slowly. "Not just the rafts. We need to find a way to trick them, or fight back, or-or something else."_

_Daiyo nodded. "I have some ideas."_

* * *

==/*\==

* * *

She didn't know if it was due to how draining the contact experiment had been, or if it was because she was technically still awake while talking to Daiyo, but it was nearly a full day before she finally woke. Immediately she bolted upright on her cot, looking around. A tray with a glass of water and some fried fish had been left out for her, and she licked her lips as she realized that it had been nearly two days since she had something to drink.

Draining the glass in one go, she tore into the fish next, and all the while her mind was going a mile a minute. She had to play this right if there was any hope of it working. Weighing her options, she made her first decision as she finished swallowing the last hunk of fish.

"You guys can hear me, right?" she asked, voice wavering slightly. She cleared her throat. "I want that hour of outdoor activity I was promised."

At first, nothing happened. As the minutes wore on, Miki felt her shoulders sag as she began to wonder if Ryuui had been lying to her about being able to leave the room.

Then the door swung open, and two guards stepped through, rifles slung over their shoulders. One of them was carrying what appeared to be a uniform and a pair of boots, and he tossed it over.

"Your hour's already begun, so make it quick," the guard said. "After your hour is finished, you will be escorted to the situation room for a meeting with Captain Ryuui."

Miki nodded, and ducked under the covers, hastily throwing on the uniform. The sleeves were too long, and the boots too big, but it was better than wearing a hospital gown. Hopping out of bed, she warily walked up the guards. They marched her out, making sure at least one of them had her in sight.

As they began to leave the ward, Miki slowly breathed in through her nose. Step one to the escape plan was already underway.

* * *

==/*\==

* * *

In the low morning sun, the island had a deceptive tranquility to it, like the crystal clear ponds made by acid rain. From her vantage point on the rocky ridge that ran the island's length, it was hard to tell that there were hundreds of slaves being forced to work in horrific conditions, or that an army of literal monsters was being gradually gathered.

She frowned at that though, as she slowly walked along the roughly-hewn path. She had already seen the Ebirah, but Ryuui had said that was only a fraction of their power. Just where could the others be?

Trying to act casual, she slowly glanced over her shoulder at the guard behind her. She didn't need to be psychic to tell that he was _really_ not happy with having to play babysitter. He was surprisingly young, like they had recruited him out of high school, and that sort of young impudence was clear on his face.

It was also clear from his surface thoughts. Without even bothering to pry, she could sense deep insecurity, mixed with an odd sense of entitlement and seasoned heavily with pride. Atop it all, risen from the deeper feelings like fat that formed at the top of boiling cream, was a shallow but fiery anger.

He'd be an easier nut to crack than Ryuui, for sure.

"So..." she drawled, kicking at a rock with her oversized boots and sending it tumbling down the ridge. "What other monsters do you guys have?"

"Why would we tell you, Skinny?" the young guard huffed, voice low.

Miki shrugged, hoping the forceful way she did it wasn't too noticeable. "I dunno. I _am_ going to be controlling Godzilla soon enough, aren't I? Might as well know what other monsters I'm going to be working with."

"Godzilla will be under the control of the revived Empire, and the Empire alone." The guard straightened as he walked, clearly bristling at her statement. "You're just the facilitator, Skinny."

"Don't engage with the Asset," the guard ahead of Miki said tiredly, looking over his shoulder.

Miki folded her arms behind her, moving into a little goose-stepping cadence as she was escorted further down the ridge. Looking around, she noticed that one side of the island was surprisingly undeveloped, with vast lava fields left pristine.

"I know Rodan and Anguirus are back on Monster Island, or whatever they call it," she went on. "And Varan, and a bunch of others... I can't remember if Gorosaurus was still there."

No rise out of the guard, in terms of surface thoughts. It seemed they didn't have that particular kaiju with them, thankfully.

"It'd be cool if you had Baragon with you, but I know he's dead. Manda would be pretty neat to see- I bet you'd guys would love having a real dragon for propaganda stuff. I hope you don't have Kumonga, since spiders-"

She paused for a heartbeat as the guard's thoughts tensed, and she picked up a half-image of spindly legs skittering down the beach.

"Well, they're pretty creepy to look at. Same thing with those giant mantises. What are they called? Kamacuras?"

Another tension, another half-image. This time, it seemed there were at least three or four of them. She smiled to herself as she realized just how easy it was to get information from the guard.

"Captain Ryuui mentioned something called ookondoru. I mean, I've seen stuffed dummies of condors, and they're pretty big, but I don't see how that counts as a monster army."

"If you're lucky, you might see them in action today," the guard ahead of her said, tersely. "Now be quiet, or your excursion ends early."

Miki did as told, frowning as she considered the man's words. They were close to the middle of the island, now, and Miki could sense something familiar. Not her own memories, but someone else's. She was close to where Daiyo had sneaked to in the middle of the night and stashed the key to the next step.

Closing her eyes, she let the phantom memories guide her feet, the sensation growing stronger as she drew closer. More importantly, however, she envisioned herself standing on the path. If she focused, she could envision the young guard walking along, brow furrowed as he watched her. Carefully, she replicated her action from yesterday and imagined herself clamping her hands over his eyes.

Opening her eyes again, she took a handful of steps off the patch. When the guard said nothing, she crept further down, to where Daiyo had stashed the fetish. Her boots slipped on the rock, and she stifled a yelp as she fell half a foot. Her concentration wavered, but it seemed the guard was still under the illusion she had made. Holding her breath, she flipped over a rock, and felt hope surge in her chest as her eyes fell on the small stone square Daiyo had left her.

The stone was oddly cool to the touch as she picked it up, and almost immediately she felt an odd calm washing over her. Redoubling her focus, she stashed it in her pocket and hurried back to the trail. Her concentration finally broke as she made it, and she wiped the sweat off her forehead.

The guard in front of her looked back, brow furrowed. "Private, the Asset didn't break formation, did she? I swore I heard running."

"I don't know what you're talking about," the younger guard said. "It's been walking with us the whole time."

The older man shrugged slightly, then stopped, glancing down at his watch. "This is the halfway point for us. You'll be escorted to the situation room for your meeting with Captain Ryuui, now."

Miki nodded, too tense to say anything. Spinning about, she began the walk back to the base, with none of the previous playfulness. Instead, she merely kept her eyes focused ahead, focusing on the shape of the base ahead of her.

It was a few minutes later that she heard the screaming. Snapping her head to the right, she saw one of the slaves running up the ridge, a hundred meters or so ahead of the path. The young guard aimed his rifle, and Miki became very still.

"Hold your fire," the older guard said, behind Miki.

The slave dashed over the path, still screaming. This was not an earnest escape attempt, Miki realized with a sinking feeling in her stomach. This was a man whose mind had simply cracked, and simply wanted _out_, no matter what the consequences would be.

He was not even a quarter of the way to the water when a shadow fell over him. Miki looked up, and saw a massive _thing_ come down, brown feathers rustling against the wind. It was huge, bigger than a single-flyer plane, with a serpentine neck that supported a bald head. Extending its wings wide, it let out a screech as it fell upon the man, and Miki closed her eyes before the final moment.

The screaming stopped. There was the sound of flapping wings, and Miki opened her eyes again to see it rise, disappearing until it was but a tiny point in the sky. One of _dozens_.

"Those things are a sight," the older guard said. "They can stay up there for days at a time, even sleeping, only coming down to eat. And they have plenty of opportunities to eat. We get runners at least twice a day."

Miki didn't say anything to that. She simply continued walking forward, and tried not to vomit. Reaching into her pocket, she squeezed the cool stone against her palm, clinging to it like it was the only thing keeping her from falling down a steep precipice.

* * *

==/*\==

* * *

They put a blindfold over her as she was marched through the base, and she had to resist the urge to point out just how stupid it was. Through their eyes, she could see the barracks, the directions to various parts of the base, and the path to the situation room. She could practically feel through the older guard's hands as he put in the code to open the door.

The blindfold was finally whipped off, and she found herself in something that looked almost like an air traffic control room. A handful of technicians sat facing the windows, operating complex-looking equipment. In the center of it, she saw Captain Ryuui standing at a large table, looking over a map of the Pacific. He looked up at her and cracked his toothy grin.

"Ah, Miss Saegusa! I hope you enjoyed your morning stroll."

Miki merely straightened, struggling to look the man in the eye. He frowned, his single eye looking over at the guards.

"Well?"

"She got to see the ookondoru at work," the older guard said, sounding oddly proud of that.

Ryuui shook his head. "That is one of the last things I need this recruit to see, corporal. She is not some Chinese dog that needs to be cowed in line. Make sure there are no further incidences while she is on her daily walk."

Miki felt a sense of surprise and mortification from the older man as he saluted. "Yes, Captain."

"Very well. Dismissed." Ryuui pointed at Miki. "As for you, I would like to enlist your services for a simple task."

Pausing for a moment, she hurried over and stood across the table from him. Glancing down, she saw it was a topographic map of the Pacific, with a red circle drawn in marker around one particularly deep-seeming region. Ryuui gestured with his hand at the map, sweeping it over like he was showing off a jewelry collection.

"As the Americans learned in the fifties, Godzilla cannot be tracked by _any_ equipment when he's not at the very surface of the ocean. Not even the Xiliens could find him during the war. But now, I suspect we have the tool best suited for knowing where he is at any given moment."

Miki's brow furrowed. "You think I can find him?"

"Only one way to find out. Close your eyes, and focus on him, Think of him, and see if it shall guide your hand."

Miki pursed her lips, then did as told. Eyes closed, she laid her hand on the cool paper and focused on what she had seen in her contact experiment. Freezing waters, silver sand beneath her feet, even the fiery eyes of Godzilla himself.

There was a soft sound, and she realized her hand was gliding over the map, skin whispering against the glossy paper as she let the memories guide her. The sensation reached its peak, and she stopped. Opening her eyes, she saw that her fingers were at the edge of the red circle.

"So he was resting in the Izu Trench after all," Ryuui murmured. "Hiding all these years, undisturbed by a thousand atmospheres of pressure."

Before Miki knew it, her hand began to slide away from the trench, agonizingly slow. Ryuui seemed to notice it, and his lone eye widened.

"He's moving." It was more a statement than anything else. Quickly, he reached for the marker and pushed it into her hands. "Draw out his path- I want to see where he's going."

Miki closed her eyes again, redoubling her focus on her memories of the contact experiment. Without even thinking, her hand continued slowly drifting away from the trench, marker squeaking against the paper. It was slow going- even something like Godzilla was small before the Pacific, and it could take a minute to even cover a centimeter. Her arm quickly began to ache, but she didn't dare move, afraid that even an errant twitch would make her lose the trail. Minute by minute, she continued.

Around her, she could hear Ryuui call over a few of his men to the table. There were sounds of uncapped markers, rulers sliding against the paper, frenzied writing... they were poring over the map, likely comparing Godzilla's route to vital locations or targets. Hesitantly, she brushed against their surface thoughts, and was rewarded with a glimpse of a token labeled 'US Carrier Group' near the Philippines.

She nearly jumped in her skin as the marker suddenly began to glide rapidly across the map, drawing a few cries of surprise from the others. It slowed again, and Miki felt her hand cramp as it began to slowly wiggle back and forth, with no seeming rhyme or reason to the pattern.

She didn't know how long it had been going on for. Mere minutes? An hour? Time seemed to lose its consistency as she fell into herself, focusing only the phantom pull guiding her hand. The aching heat in her bones from last night threatened to return as her arm struggled to stay straight, and sweat began to pour down her forehead.

Then, without any warning, the marker stopped, and sweet relief enveloped her arm as she pulled away. Opening her eyes, she saw a meandering curve trailing away from the Izu trench, only to suddenly turn into a straight line that practically crossed the Philippine Sea. The red line of the marker had begun to hug the coastline of Papua New Guinea, matching every nook and cranny.

"In just under an hour, he's crossed a thousand miles," Ryuui murmured, running a finger along the straight line. "This must be yet another one of the tunnels that bury deep into the crust, one that we've never found before. We'll be sure to map them all out when we have him under our control."

"It would definitely make surprise strikes against foreign cities much easier," one of his lieutenants mused. "Shanghai by breakfast, Los Angeles by lunch, Sydney by dinner."

"And perhaps Jakarta for dessert," Ryuui said, straightening.

Miki repressed a shudder at that thought. Just how many people could that monster kill in merely a day?

"The question now is just what the kaiju is doing," another lieutenant said. "Why is it swimming along the Guinean coast?"

"That," Ryuui said, "will be resolved soon enough."

Miki shrank away as the captain turned his singular gaze upon her. Once again, she could sense that strange feeling coming for him, and she tried to ignore it.

"Excellent work once again, Miss Saegusa. In light of your continuing surpassing of our expectations, your second contact experiment will be moved to tomorrow morning. In the meantime, you will be returned to your quarters, and I advise you get some rest."

Ryuui gave a nod, and Miki felt a guard grab her arm as she was marched out of the situation room. Wiping the sweat from her forehead, her eyes darted back and forth as she took stock of her surroundings. She doubted she was going to help the slaves infiltrate the base anytime soon, but every detail was important, as there was no telling what would be needed.

It took a surprisingly long time to get back. As they passed hangar after hangar, barracks after barracks, lab after lab, Miki felt a growing dread as she realized just massive the Red Bamboo's forces actually were. They were probably spread across the south seas like a cancer, with supply depots on countless islands. It was the only way to account for how they could be _feeding _so many people.

Arriving back at her cell, she saw that they had laid out a few books and leaflets, all Japanese propaganda. She couldn't hide the small snort of derision as they marched her into the room and shut the door behind her once more. Were they seriously hoping to brainwash the cynical psychic girl?

Stretching her shoulders, she laid down on her cot and closed her eyes, tightly clutching the stone in her pocket. Just as before, she began to focus on any memories or thoughts she had of Mothra. Pictures in textbooks, excited discussions with her elementary school classmates-

_great wings made of the sun, their beauty at odds with the screams_

She tensed, losing focused, then slowly let the memories engulf her, like stepping into a scalding hot bath. Slowly but surely, the world faded away, and the most important step of the escape plan began.

* * *

==/*\==

* * *

_**You have been reading:**_

_**Wakes, Chapter Three**_


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